C.N. Douglas, comp. Forty Thousand Quotations: Prose and Poetical. 1917.
Temperance
The universal medicine of life.
Temperance is the nurse of chastity.
Temperance in everything is requisite for happiness.
Satan o’ercomes none but by willingness.
Temperance adds zest to pleasure.
That cardinal virtue, temperance.
Drinking water neither makes a man sick, nor in debt, nor his wife a widow.
Use, do not abuse; neither abstinence nor excess ever renders man happy.
Temperance to be a virtue must be free, and not forced.
He who would keep himself to himself should imitate the dumb animals, and drink water.
Every inordinate cup is unblessed, and the ingredient is a devil.
In temperance there is ever cleanliness and elegance.
If you wish to keep the mind clear and the body healthy, abstain from all fermented liquors.
Temperance is a bridle of gold; he who uses it rightly is more like a god than a man.
Moderation is the silken string running through the pearl chain of all virtues.
Temperance is corporeal piety; it is the preservation of divine order in the body.
Great men should drink with harness on their throats.
Above all, let the poor hang up the amulet of temperance in their homes.
Though I look old, yet I am strong and lusty, for in my youth I never did apply hot and rebellious liquors in my blood.
Except thou desire to hasten thine end, take this for a general rule, that thou never add any artificial heat to thy body by wine or spice.
Men live best on moderate means: Nature has dispensed to all men wherewithal to be happy, if mankind did but understand how to use her gifts.
It is all nonsense about not being able to work without ale and cider and fermented liquors. Do lions and cart-horses drink ale?
The smaller the drink, the clearer the head, and the cooler the blood; which are great benefits in temper and business.
Temperance is reason’s girdle and passion’s bridle, the strength of the soul and the foundation of virtue.
The first draught serveth for health, the second for pleasure, the third for shame, and the fourth for madness.
Every moderate drinker could abandon the intoxicating cup if he would; every inebriate would if he could.
Temperance gives nature her full play, and enables her to exert herself in all her force and vigor.
If it is a small sacrifice to discontinue the use of wine, do it for the sake of others; if it is a great sacrifice, do it for your own.
Temperance is a tree which has for a root very little contentment, and for fruit, calm and peace.
If temperance prevails, then education can prevail; if temperance fails, then education must fail.
There is hardly any noble quantity or endowment of the mind but must own temperance, either for its parent or its nurse.
Temperance puts wood on the fire, meal in the barrel, flour in the tub, money in the purse, credit in the country, contentment in the house, clothes on the back, and vigor in the body.
A Spartan, being asked why his people drank so little, replied: “That we may consult concerning others, and not others concerning us.”
There is no difference between knowledge and temperance; for he who knows what is good and embraces it, who knows what is bad and avoids it, is learned and temperate.
The receipts of cookery are swelled to a volume, but a good stomach excels them all; to which nothing contributes more than industry and temperance.
O temperance, thou fortune without envy; thou universal medicine of life, that clears the head and cleanses the blood, eases the stomach, strengthens the nerves, and perfects digestion.
Temperance, in the nobler sense, does not mean a subdued and imperfect energy; it does not mean a stopping short in any good thing, as in love or in faith; but it means the power which governs the most intense energy, and prevents its acting in any way but as it ought.
We ought to love temperance for itself, and in obedience to God who has commanded it and chastity; but what I am forced to by catarrhs, or owe to the stone, is neither chastity nor temperance.
Temperance keeps the senses clear and unembarrassed, and makes them seize the object with more keenness and satisfaction. It appears with life in the face, and decorum in the person; it gives you the command of your head, secures your health, and preserves you in a condition for business.
Temperance, that virtue without pride, and fortune without envy, that gives indolence of body with an equality of mind; the best guardian of youth and support of old age; the precept of reason as well as religion, and physician of the soul as well as the body; the tutelar goddess of health and universal medicine of life.
Temperance is a virtue which casts the truest lustre upon the person it is lodged in, and has the most general influence upon all other particular virtues of any that the soul of man is capable of; indeed so general, that there is hardly any noble quality or endowment of the mind, but must own temperance either for its parent or its nurse; it is the greatest strengthener and clearer of reason, and the best preparer of it for religion, the sister of prudence, and the handmaid to devotion.